Getting at the Truth

In Yesterday's Bee a Freelance journalist from Washington wrote an article on the Tea Party Protest held in Washington recently. The headline was "Taxpayer March - it looked like Fox's America" - in the article he made the following claims. The crowd was about 70,000. It was predominantly white. It was corporate funded. The crowd was delusional in thinking they had 2 million there. Here are three pictures of the event. They seem to contradict the writer's claims. Compared to a protest led by the left the crowd does look a bit older. But in my experience (with the Vietnam mobilizations a few decades ago) the crowds at these events are "overwhelmingly" white.

I was not particularly interested in the march. I heard bits about it before it happened and almost no news coverage of it when it did happen. But the Freelancer seemed particularly interested in reinforcing a view that opposition to the President's plans is only coming from a narrow fringe group. Carter's comments last week claiming that opposition to the president came from racists seems to be in the same vein.

My own perception is that there is a significant part of the American people who disagree with the President's plans - not based on his race but on his proposals. Indeed, parts of it are on the fringe. But a good deal of it begins with a thought about what is the appropriate role for government. It is too bad our local paper cannot present a "fair and balanced" view of this event so we can judge it more clearly.